an update from the warzone

See the map and read the stories...

I made my first call to 911 for this new year. I heard 6 gunshots at 2:30am on Jan 27 Sat morning. It woke me up, and I groggily called 911 to report them, because I thought they were within 1/2 block of my location. Later, I never found objective evidence for the gunshots, where somebody else mentioned them online. Maybe it was because of the late hour, so most people slept through it.

Unrelated to gunfire, I saw a For Sale sign at another house on my block. Only once did I ever meet the guy who lived there. I was looking at the road under construction (see the bottom picture when it was complete) when they closed off our block, and he joined me at the sidewalk. He was concerned about gangs storing drugs at his outdoor property for later retrieval. I never saw him again. He was much older than me. Hopefully he decided to cash out rather than succumbing to stress or disease. I think I never knew his name.

One night last week, I think it was, I saw an ambulance pull away from my next door neighbor's house. The one with the older man and his even older mother, north of my house. I haven't seen either of them since then to ask if they're okay.

Overall, it's actually been more peaceful here in recent months. The ShotSpotter map for Minneapolis is less dense than usual. That's a very good improvement. A problem, though, is that the shots are clustered around where I live, rather than spread out more generally through north Minneapolis. I live near the bottom left of that blue blob at the top center of this image, which shows only the last 7 days of data. The red star on the bottom right corner is about 4 blocks east of the big grocery store I frequently mention. It's where someone was shot and killed recently. This map explains why I consider it "a big deal" when I walk home from the grocery store, because that's where I walk.

Oh, and the county sheriff's office confiscated a grenade launcher. I think rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) are new here?

But it HAS been better recently. Truly, it has. I credit the federal government with actually keeping violent people off the streets. I live near Broadway Avenue, which is the border between the Highs and the Lows. When I first learned those terms many years ago, they weren't "official" gangs, just loosely associated groups of other gangs in the area. The names weren't related to the products they sold. The Highs were north of the border, and the Lows were south of the border. Apparently that loose structure may have changed. Federal prosecutors stepped in, and they used federal RICO laws to charge 45 gang members, from the Highs and Lows (north Minneapolis, my warzone) and the Bloods (south Minneapolis). It seemed to help. They followed up with a few more indictments. The feds are keeping them in jail, in contrast to our local justice system which seemed to release everyone quickly. Again, it seems to help.

I don't know the perfect solution, but I appreciate any extra space between stressors to just breathe.

Stay safe out there.